The Syllabus

This syllabus, designed around a typical 12-15 week university course, reflects the suggestions of contributors from across the globe. Submissions were solicited via Twitter and Facebook, debated in internet fora, and selected to serve as a snapshot of the best of current and past scholarship. It is not meant to be definitive. Instead, it should serve as a foundation or guide for future study into the commonalities and differences between fascist, populist, and authoritarian movements and what they can tell us about present day concerns.

Included here are films, memoirs, books and articles on many varieties of right-wing authoritarianism. Some material was produced at the time; others are reflections, scholarly as well as personal. We have provided links to Google Books whenever possible, to help readers locate these sources. University libraries are the best place to look to find many of them, although a good many of these sources may be found at your local library or ordered in via lending agreements. Ask your local librarian for help.

“Interrogating the Past” offers a historical overview of fascist, populist, and right-leaning and/or authoritarian movements around the globe. Because the wide availability of crowd-sourced syllabi on US American history, we have not replicated their work but rather focused on other regions. Trump Syllabus, Trump Syllabus 2.0 and Trump Syllabus 3.0 are good places to get started for readings on US American history. For commentary on the present moment in the United States and elsewhere, click “Interrogating the Present.”

This is a work in progress, with some sections richer in content than others. We welcome your suggestions for filling out the syllabus.

The syllabus includes materials that should be useful for discussion, debate, and critique. Inclusion of an item does not indicate NFS’s endorsement of the author’s analysis or opinion.

In this accessible book, Roger Griffin, one of the world’s leading authorities on fascism, brings welcome clarity to this controversial ideology. He examines its origins and development as a political concept, from its historical beginnings in 1920s Italy up to the present day, and guides students through the confusing maze of debates surrounding the nature, definition and meaning of fascism. Elucidating with skill and precision its dynamic as a utopian ideology of national/racial rebirth, Griffin goes on to examine its post-Second World War mutations and its relevance to understanding contemporary right-wing political phenomena, ranging from Marine Le Pen to Golden Dawn.

Frederickson, George M. “The Rise of Modern Racism: White Supremacy and Antisemitism in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” In Racism: A Short History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

What was Fascism's initial socio-political program? And to what extent did those early objectives change and evolve during its conquest of power between the mid- to late-1920s?

Mussolini's dictatorship boasted itself as a "totalitarian" form of government, meaning that the State's authority was supreme, unquestioned, and permanent. But how "totalitarian" was Il Duce's Fascist Government in practice?

Stone, Marla. The Fascist Revolution in Italy: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.

Week 5: Germany

Question(s) to Consider:

Hitler's Germany drew on nationalist principles from before the 20th century, honed and shaped through street fighting and democratic crisis. How did Germany's legacy differentiate Nazism from the fascism of Mussolini?

What role did racial ideology, antisemitism, rapidly changing sexual and gender norms, and the experience of mass violence play in shaping the particular brand of authoritarianism that took root in Germany?

How did Latin America's history of "strong-man" rule evolve into populism in the mid 20th century?

Largely spared the devastation of World War II, Latin America found itself under intense pressure during the Cold War. How did external and internal forces shape the late 20th-century era of dictatorship and dirty wars?

How did Latin Americans experience dictatorship, dirty war, and the transition to peace?

How did the the legacy of colonialism and anti-colonial activity shape the Arab Middle East's response to European fascism? How did concerns about Zionism intersect with the response to European fascism?

What are the characteristics of clerical and non-clerical authoritarian states in the Middle East in the late 20th and early 21st century?

How did Zionism's intersecting concerns of liberalism, nationalism, and colonialism - together with Holocaust memory - intersect to create exclusionary authoritarian strands in Israel?

Excerpt of Speech: "My position is that what we are experiencing now is the end of an era: a conceptual-ideological era. Putting pretension aside, we can simply call this the era of liberal babble. This era is now at an end, and this situation both carries a huge risk and offers a new opportunity. It offers the chance for the national-Christian ideology, way of thinking and approach to regain dominance – not only in Hungary, but throughout the whole of Europe."

About

The #NewFascismSyllabus is a crowd-sourced collection of scholarly writings on the history of fascist, populist, and authoritarian movements and governments. It is intended to serve as an entryway into the scholarly literature for those seeking deeper insights into how past societies have gravitated towards authoritarianism, and seeks to provide comparative perspectives on how everyday people, as well as cultural authorities and civil institutions, coped and, in some cases, resisted these changes.